Plymouth Brethren Christian Church members leave Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, after selling about 40 homes

The Exclusive Brethren, a fundamentalist group known for its doctrine of isolation from the modern world, tells members not to vote in elections, watch television, join a union, go to university or socialise unnecessarily with outsiders. According to the report, other rules include that men should not wear shorts, couples may not live in “sin,” and women should not wear pants, have short hair or hold positions of authority over men. Members who break such rules risk excommunication.

Property records this year showed hundreds of members in the Windsor area, north-west of Sydney, selling their homes, closing businesses and relocating to Brethren communities around the country. The Windsor home of senior member Russell Woodbury was among the first to sell, for $1.98 million. About 40 privately owned Brethren houses have since been sold, totalling more than $58 million, as members settle into communities as far afield as Victoria, Tasmania, Leeton in the state’s south-west, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains.

A statement attributed to Russell Woodbury acknowledged that “local Hawkesbury residents have been part of, and share a deep history with, the Windsor community for over 50 years.” It said that after repeated flooding in recent years, and considering the future impacts of climate change, the church had to consider its churches, members’ homes and businesses in the long term. The statement said that in March 2021 the congregation decided the safest course was to close the churches in the Windsor area and for members to move their homes and businesses to other Plymouth Brethren Christian Church communities of their choice.

Former members of the Windsor community dispute that the decision was collective. They point instead to global leader Bruce Hales, known as the Elect Vessel, whom they describe as the only authority in the church. Ben Woodbury, a nephew of Russell Woodbury who was born and raised in the Windsor Brethren community, left the church in 2016 and was excommunicated soon after. He said, “This was a directive from Bruce Hales. What Bruce Hales says is as good as gospel.” He also said it was common knowledge that Hales had never liked the Windsor community being there because of a past dispute between Hales’s late father, John Hales, and the founding elders of the community. Ben Woodbury’s account of the leadership’s motives is his own claim and has not been confirmed by the church in the report.

Ben Woodbury, who remains in Windsor and owns a homewares shop and a children’s boutique, said his family was sent to live in the Blue Mountains, causing much distress to those still trying to “make peace with it.” A text from another member, seen by The Age, included a joke about joining the Anglican Church “because apparently they don’t make you move out.” The episode shows how hard it can be to make peace after a painful separation (Romans 12:18).

The report also described the church’s limited contact with its surrounding town. Last week, only one of about a dozen business owners in the Windsor town centre said they were aware the Brethren had left. Hawkesbury deputy mayor Barry Calvert was also unaware, though he said he was not surprised, noting six floods in the past 18 months, three of which forced the closure of the Windsor Bridge.

Real estate agents in the Windsor, Bligh Park and Pitt Town suburbs have been closely aware of the number of homes coming onto the market, and have called it “the great Brethren migration.”

Source: Read the original report